# Cuban Pipe Tobacco?



## Ethernomad (Aug 23, 2013)

So...wasn't really sure where to post this question because it's about pipes, but it's about Habanos. While I was puffing away on a custom perique blend tossed up by my local tobacconist, this thought crossed my mind. Anyone have any experience with Cuban pipe tobacco? I can't imagine such a baccie-rich island being completely void of pipers.


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## Herf N Turf (Dec 31, 2008)

Wow, what a great question and honestly, I don't think I've ever seen it posted before! I've also never seen Cuban pipe tobacco, but like you, can't imagine they don't imbibe. I can't wait until someone in the know posts up. I also would have a problem if you queried the piper forum on this. As long as you're not talking sources, why not?


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## Rock31 (Sep 30, 2010)

From previous posts in the Pipe forum, the unanimous answer was just not good. It was nothing like Cuban cigars.


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## cakeanddottle (Mar 14, 2011)

cigar leaf in pipe tobacco is more along the lines of a condiment tobacco. It's good mixed with Va, just like Perique, Kentucky and Oriental are. Save a few cuttings from figurados chop and blend them with some straight Va, you'll see what I mean. Good, but not good like smoking a CC.


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## Ethernomad (Aug 23, 2013)

cakeanddottle said:


> cigar leaf in pipe tobacco is more along the lines of a condiment tobacco. It's good mixed with Va, just like Perique, Kentucky and Oriental are. Save a few cuttings from figurados chop and blend them with some straight Va, you'll see what I mean. Good, but not good like smoking a CC.


Is it a regional hurdle? By that I mean, would good pipe tobacco just not grow in a region like Cuba? Or are Cuban plants bred for a particular twang that doesn't lend itself to the briar?


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## cakeanddottle (Mar 14, 2011)

Ethernomad said:


> Is it a regional hurdle? By that I mean, would good pipe tobacco just not grow in a region like Cuba? Or are Cuban plants bred for a particular twang that doesn't lend itself to the briar?


all tobacco that we smoke, except for maybe rustica and I don't know any blend that includes it, is the same species of plant. So Cuban, Virginia, Oriental, it's all the same plant. Think about how different those tobaccos are, and you've answered the question whether soil and climate matters.

You can actually grow Virginia tobacco in the US, India and Africa, but all three have characteristic traits that make them unique. There are many varieties of Oriental, and they're all unique flavor-wise. As a condiment pipe tobacco I'd put cigar leaf in the Burley family. It's good in pipe tobacco, no doubt about it, but IMO it'd be a shame to waste any good cigar leaf on that purpose. The complexity and stunning flavors you get from top notch cigars do not translate into a pipe mixture. IMO.


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## Ethernomad (Aug 23, 2013)

I'm wondering less about adding Cuban cigar tobacco to pipe blends (which sounds like a great reason to save guillotine clippings), but more along the lines of whether there are any purpose made pipe tobacco blends hailing from the ISOM.

Though it sounds like Cuba's claim to tobacco fame comes by their cigars. And what makes their cigars stand out doesn't really add much to a pipe blend (over some other type of cigar tobacco). But I still wonder what the Cuban pipers smoke.


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## cakeanddottle (Mar 14, 2011)

Pipe smoking is kind of absent in certain geographies, just like snuff taking is limited to certain areas. It could be that there is no tradition of smoking pipes in Cuba. My Mexican friends tell me pipe and snuff are practically unknown there. My guess is that on an island with a tradition of cigar culture, that is the de facto means of enjoying tobacco, regardless of age, gender or social status.


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## T.E.Fox (Jul 11, 2013)

I've tried clippings in the pipe from some cc's but it wasn't at all nice. It might also be a factor that if pipe culture is nearly absent there, and cigars have been THE trademark of the country for some five billion years (give or take ), then all the tobacco fields would likely be pouring effort into growing tobacco suited to the most financially beneficial market they have available - cigars.


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

Ethernomad said:


> So...wasn't really sure where to post this question because it's about pipes, but it's about Habanos. While I was puffing away on a custom perique blend tossed up by my local tobacconist, this thought crossed my mind. Anyone have any experience with Cuban pipe tobacco? I can't imagine such a baccie-rich island being completely void of pipers.


Nothing like you would imagine it to be. Many find it repulsing as a matter of fact.
I think Wayne {pyro tec] was giving some away in the pipe section if you where willing to do a review.


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## OnePyroTec (Dec 11, 1997)

The Cuban pipe tobacco that I have had is nothing like pipe tobacco from anywhere else in the world. Not really processed and just seems like it is cigar tobacco chopped up. In the pipe review section there are several reviews of this stuff on the way soon. 

If you want to try some, drop me a PM and I'll be happy to ship a sample. It is definitely a tobacco you will want to try before you buy because it is not for everyone and you get so much in the package.


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## stonecutter2 (Jul 12, 2012)

cakeanddottle said:


> Pipe smoking is kind of absent in certain geographies, just like snuff taking is limited to certain areas. It could be that there is no tradition of smoking pipes in Cuba. My Mexican friends tell me pipe and snuff are practically unknown there. My guess is that on an island with a tradition of cigar culture, that is the de facto means of enjoying tobacco, regardless of age, gender or social status.


Che Guevara was an avid pipe smoker, and a major figure in the Cuban revolution alongside Fidel Castro. If you look on wikipedia, you'll see several pictures of him puffing on a pipe.

When captured before he was executed, he asked a soldier for something to smoke, and the soldier obliged a little pouch of pipe tobacco for his pipe.

When they exhumed his body, there was doubt as to whether it really was him. That little pouch with tobacco in it in his jacket helped confirm it really was Che Guevara...the soldier who'd given him the bag of tobacco knew it was him after hearing the bag was found.


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## Tobias Lutz (Feb 18, 2013)

OnePyroTec said:


> The Cuban pipe tobacco that I have had is nothing like pipe tobacco from anywhere else in the world. Not really processed and just seems like it is cigar tobacco chopped up. In the pipe review section there are several reviews of this stuff on the way soon.
> 
> If you want to try some, drop me a PM and I'll be happy to ship a sample. It is definitely a tobacco you will want to try before you buy because it is not for everyone and you get so much in the package.


I found the stuff you sent me to be more of a "condiment" tobacco. I can see blending it nicely, but a straight bowl full was not entirely to my taste.


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